Carnival of the Vanities 211: Questions of Belonging

Kehaar, of Silflay Hraka, brings us CoTV #211, and more on his editorial direction, and this leads me to ponder what, and when, will be my next contribution ( See Below. ):

Some people might say that everything submitted should be posted but I think that's part of what's been ailing the Carnival for a while now. People have been submitting anything and everything and, since the Carny has been sans editor, the average quality of the posts dropped to the point at which the Carnival was becoming irrelevant.

All this begs the question as to what makes a good CoTV post and what doesn't? I think the answer lies in the original concept of the Carnival.

He quotes a portion of the origin essay, and continues:

It's about exposing your best stuff to the rest of the blogosphere. With that in mind, the editorial clipping for the Carnival shouldn't begin with me. It should begin with you. I only have to edit the Carnival if and when people fail to edit themselves. It's pretty easy to tell who is using the Carnival to drive traffic to their blog and who is using the Carnival to provide exposure to truly good writing. The people who do the first, while claiming to support CoTV, have slowly been poisoning it instead. Readers don't have the time to separate the wheat from the chaff and assume most of what appears in the Carnival is poor.

He goes on to suggest the potential submitter ask himself/herself/itself/huself a few questions.

After some more thoughts this weeks recommended reading is presented.

I like the way he thinks, and am hopeful to soon submit some worthy entries from my Bikeblog.

I am about to begin 2 investigative series related to Bicycling Safety, and have hopes of engaging folks in the wider Blogosphere in the discussion, and not just cyclists, but motorists as well.

This is new teritory for me, and may cause a stir, and I'm unsure how to spread the word to a Community that seems unaware of my particular niche of the Blogosphere, and thus might not take it seriously, even after several appearances in the Carnival over the years.